Data for 2018

Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2018

Name: Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2018
Creator: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
License: https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/data-and-publications/data-and-statistics/terms-use-datasets

Figures for 2018, as UNHCR published them · stored as published, never rewritten

Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2018 covers 176 countries. United States is highest, at 718,992; 19 countries share the lowest reading, 0. The middle country reads 831. Against 2017, 158 values changed (95 up, 63 down), 3 countries joined, 1 left.

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Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum · Data for 2018

HighestUnited States

718,992

Lowest19 countries share it

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

176countries
1measure
2018the year it describes
150distinct valueswhole numbers, as published
Sep 26, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2018, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 176 countries · select a heading to sort

Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2018: every country, as published by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

United States`USA`Northern America	718,992
Germany`DEU`Western Europe	369,239
Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	311,699
Peru`PER`South America	230,845
South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	184,193
Brazil`BRA`South America	152,670
Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	105,606
France`FRA`Western Europe	89,055
Canada`CAN`Northern America	78,766
Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	78,685
Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	76,057
Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	68,168
Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	60,645
Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	52,536
Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	50,458
Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	47,403
United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	45,234
Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	41,801
Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	39,659
Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	37,892
Austria`AUT`Western Europe	37,347
Israel`ISR`Western Asia	35,569
Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	32,595
Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	30,128
Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	29,040
Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	25,269
Mexico`MEX`Central America	23,833
Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	23,135
Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	21,133
South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	19,827
Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	19,550
Syria`SYR`Western Asia	18,631
Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	17,619
Ecuador`ECU`South America	17,044
Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	16,404
Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	16,361
Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	14,776
Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	14,013
Panama`PAN`Central America	13,602
Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	12,303
Chile`CHL`South America	11,993
India`IND`Southern Asia	11,938
Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	10,479
Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	10,267
Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	10,207
Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	9,937
Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	9,176
Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	8,910
Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	8,805
Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	8,092
Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	7,159
United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	6,500
Uruguay`URY`South America	6,404
Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	6,389
Argentina`ARG`South America	6,102
DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	5,770
Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	5,658
Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	5,170
Niger`NER`Western Africa	3,547
Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	3,467
Belize`BLZ`Central America	3,305
Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	3,300
Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	3,264
Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	3,196
Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	3,059
Colombia`COL`South America	2,851
Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	2,675
South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	2,535
Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	2,246
Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	2,167
Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	2,136
Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	1,910
Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	1,860
Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	1,829
Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	1,699
Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	1,578
Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	1,560
Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	1,516
Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	1,485
Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	1,476
Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	1,361
Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	1,312
Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	1,126
Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	1,003
Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	983
Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	940
Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	934
Mali`MLI`Western Africa	917
Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	744
Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	739
Togo`TGO`Western Africa	694
Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	677
China`CHN`Eastern Asia	583
New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	446
Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	437
Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	423
Nauru`NRU`Micronesia	416
Aruba`ABW`Caribbean	407
Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	397
Paraguay`PRY`South America	350
Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	349
Curaçao`CUW`Caribbean	342
Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	327
Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	315
Benin`BEN`Western Africa	308
Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	281
Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	273
Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	268
Oman`OMN`Western Asia	254
Guatemala`GTM`Central America	251
Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	250
Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	245
Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	238
Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	219
Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	209
Suriname`SUR`South America	206
Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	198
Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	198
Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	190
Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	184
Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	162
Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	159
Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	151
Venezuela`VEN`South America	142
Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	126
Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	120
Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	105
Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	105
Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	93
Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	91
Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	90
Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	85
Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	82
Liechtenstein`LIE`Western Europe	70
Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	58
Honduras`HND`Central America	55
Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	51
Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	45
Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	40
Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	40
Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	39
Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	36
Bolivia`BOL`South America	34
Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	33
Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	30
Cayman Islands`CYM`Caribbean	27
Bahamas`BHS`Caribbean	24
Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	24
Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	21
Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	21
Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	17
Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	17
El Salvador`SLV`Central America	16
Guyana`GUY`South America	12
Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	5
North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	5
Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	5
Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	0
Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0
Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0
Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0
Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0
Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0
Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0
Monaco`MCO`Western Europe	0
Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0
Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0
Saint Kitts and Nevis`KNA`Caribbean	0
Samoa`WSM`Polynesia	0
Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0
Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0
Sint Maarten`SXM`Caribbean	0
Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0
Turks and Caicos Islands`TCA`Caribbean	0
Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0
Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0

02In 2018

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

United States718,992
Germany369,239
Türkiye311,699
Peru230,845
South Africa184,193

Lowest

Samoashared0
Vietnamshared0
Uzbekistanshared0
Turkmenistanshared0
Turks and Caicos Islandsshared0

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 831. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032017 → 2018

Since 2017

What changed between 2017 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+3 / −1countries joined / left
158values changed, of 173 in both
95 · 63rose · fell
15unchanged

Rose most

Peru37,728 → 230,845+193,117
United States642,719 → 718,992+76,273
Brazil85,739 → 152,670+66,931
Spain34,866 → 78,685+43,819
Greece44,188 → 76,057+31,869

Fell most

Italy186,645 → 105,606−81,039
Germany429,265 → 369,239−60,026
Uganda44,635 → 25,269−19,366
Austria56,279 → 37,347−18,932
Sweden51,588 → 37,892−13,696

+ Barbados

+ Singapore

+ Solomon Islands

− Macau

Changes in value, not in places: a country’s place also moves when others do. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

150 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published. 19 countries share 0. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 176 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
176 rows · 4.7 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download asylum-seekers-hosted-2018-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
UNHCR’s own file, on its own site.
https://api.unhcr.org/population/v1/population/?limit=1000&yearFrom=2018&yearTo=2018&coa_all=true

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (2018). Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2018 [data set], describing 2018. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/asylum-seekers-hosted/2018

0626 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2017
174 countries
The year after ›
Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum, 2019
176 countries
All of them
Asylum-Seekers by Country of Asylum: every year
26 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions